LeT terrorist Bahadur Ali got radicalized watching videos of Asiya Andrabi

NEW DELHI: Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist Bahadur Ali alias Saifullah, a 21-year-old man from Zia Bagga village of Raiwind, Lahore, was radicalized and motivated to undertake jihad against India, after watching videos of Kashmiri separatist Asiya Andrabi, head of all-female group Dukhtaran-e-Millat among other anti-India propagandists. Andrabi has been arrested in the past on several occasions for inciting violence and waging war against India. She openly waved Pakistani flags last year and even appeared in a video slaughtering a cow defying the beef ban.

Working with Hafiz Saeed-led Jamaat-ud-Dawa since 2008, when he was just 14-year-old, Ali also used to listen to taqreers (lectures) of Maulvi Yusuf Asroori of JuD and Maulvi Khalid based in Pakistan, who undertake propaganda against India. He has also met second in command of JuD - Abdul Rehman Makki once, said NIA sources. Trained for waging war against India, Bahadur Ali "started crying" while he was hiding in jungles in the valley and "wanted to go back home".

LeT command centre in PoK - Alpha 3, headed by Saeed's son-in-law Khalid Waleed, asked him to stay put and even 'scolded him'. After infiltrating into Kashmir around June 12-13 along with two others, Saad and Darda, he got separated and remained alone inside the jungle for about a month before he was arrested on July 25.
"We reached a village known as Vadar in India on 6th or 7th day (June 20 or 21).On third day, Saad and Darda got trapped in the gunfire when they went to take food from the village. I remained alone in the jungle and constantly changed my location. I contacted Alpha -3 and requested them to allow me to come back," Ali says.
LeT handlers had given the terrorists eight grid reference codes to reach the destinations. At one of the locations, he was supposed to get food. "Alpha 3 gave me new GR code from where I was to get the food items which were supposedly dumped there. When I reached there, I couldn't find it. I contacted Alpha-3 again and requested them to arrange food and logistics. They assured me of assistance but I couldn't receive any," he further states.

He then moved to a village, Mokam, where he met four persons who belonged to Lashkar. "One of them has visited Pakistan thrice to meet LeT operations commander Abu Muslim Tunda in Muzaffarabad," said Ali. Ali was then asked to attack an Indian Army Brigadier who used to visit the area.

Using a Kashmiri's mobile there in the village, Bahadur Ali was also made to talk to Saeed's son-in-law Khalid Waleed in Pakistan. "It was probably a WhatsApp call. I started crying while speaking when Waleed scolded me. He said a man would give me SIM and mobile but it never reached me," Ali said.

Belonging to Meo caste and son of a police constable in Punjab police (Pakistan), Ali is eighth among nine siblings in the family .His two brothers - Asgar and Imdad Ali also work for JuD in their village.

He worked as a 'Jihad funds collector' for JuD in his initial days but got employed in Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation (FIF) in Lahore in 2013-14, a front NGO of Lashkar-e-Taiba, before formally joining LeT training.